Tuesday, 03 November 2009

  • Miscellaneous

    Last week was class registration for the spring semester. I met with my advisor and found out:
    - in order not to hit the excess credit hour limit, I'll have to cease all electives and get the foreign language and fine arts requirements waived. That means no intensive Greek that I'd been looking forward to for so long.
    - BUT it's possible to audit a course for only $20. ($40 for the combination of two)
    - BUT the second hour of Greek conflicts with an ANTH course that I have to take in order to satisfy an "oral competence" requirement. So no go.

    Also, I was sick last week, and paid over 60 bucks at the Health Center to be told I had a cold. I then spent the next several days mostly napping and watching TV. It wasn't as nice as that sounds; by the end of this weekend I was going nuts with boredom and loneliness, and my body was complaining from the lack of exercise. Also, try lying in bed hungry but knowing that your appetite will disappear as soon as you get up and start moving around.

    I have finally gotten around to watching all the health care documentaries I had DVRed. Surprisingly, the KERA one was not very helpful -- a bunch of sob stories about preexisting conditions and not much else that I remember. The UCTV lecture took me some time to make it through but it was a detailed enough look at waste within the system; all about administrative costs and unnecessary treatments and the importance of primary care versus specialists. My favorite was LinkTV, though, which featured a talk and Q&A session with the author of The Healing of America, who looked at the health care systems of other countries all over the world. He was particularly fond of the UK's NHS, which is incredible when it comes to preventive care and which British citizens trust more than private doctors.

    I've had strong urges to play guitar lately so I picked one up this evening. It's harder than I remembered.

Monday, 03 August 2009

  • Embarrassing

    I dress very differently at home from in public. Generally when no one important is going to be seeing me I throw fashion to the wind and wear something baggy, comfortable, and cool. I also make use of the opportunity to experiment with hair and makeup styles.

    So this evening I decided to play with some styling products. I was in the kitchen showing off my newest 'do to my sisters -- "You could be a worship leader, or a youth pastor," said Hannah --- when the doorbell rang. Elizabeth went to the front to answer it and I stayed in the kitchen, lest I scare whatever little kiddies had come to ask about playing with the animals.

    Except that it wasn't neighbor kids. It was a man come to see the goat we're selling, and as Elizabeth welcomed him inside I suddenly realized that the kitchen had nowhere to hide and no way to escape to the rest of the house.

    So our visitor got to see me wearing:
    - a knee length blue skirt.
    - a huge, faded tie-dyed T shirt that I made in the eighth grade.
    - a faux hawk.

    He probably thinks we're pretty weird.

Friday, 01 May 2009

Friday, 10 April 2009

  • So . . . for anyone who didn't know, I actually did really well on the first history test and got an A, but then the next one was a B despite finishing in time. That makes me stress about the third one, which is coming up next Wednesday.

    All other classes are going well.

    I got my hair cut with Locks of Love volunteers the Wednesday before Spring Break. Donated 14 inches, leaving it at chin length in a style that looked really cute until I washed it and it was no longer straight. I've been slowly trimming since then, and today I have bangs.

    I have today off from work. This is my first Friday off in I don't know how long. And for about the first time there really isn't much going on. Basically, I have a choice between an international talent show ("Global Extravaganza") at school, or stopping in on weekly dance practice with the group of Aztecs I saw perform last fall.

    I've spent the rest of the day inside, which feels like a waste, but then, my room really does need cleaning . . .

Wednesday, 11 February 2009

  • History Test

    Meep. I knew everything I needed to know for this test. I got all the multiple choice, could have written a decent amount for each of the short answers (the first one took me a page and a half), and had some ideas for the essay. I didn't have to sit and think about which questions to answer or what I would say.

    But I ran out of time. I was too thorough on the first couple of short answers, and ended up with only five minutes to write the essay.

    My arm was also giving out on me by the end. My handwriting was barely recognizable as the Roman alphabet.

    But I knew it all!

Monday, 02 February 2009

  • Bookstore

    Today I walked over the the university bookstore to get some supplies. I stopped to browse some of the book sections that looked interesting and saw . . .

    - Brisingr. I read the first few pages and was hit with the full force by Paolini's awkwardly pretentious writing style. That was one of the series' flaws that I had completely forgotten about, but if I'd thought about it I'd've hoped he'd outgrown it by now . . .

    - The Legend of Zelda and Philosophy. Just about anything pop culture has a book like this attached to it, but this one looked really fun.

    - manga. There are at least 17 volumes of Fullmetal Alchemist out in English now. Of more interest, however, was the set of Shakespeare plays in manga format. Drawn in the same kind of shonen style I've seen other Western mangas use, it uses all the original dialogue. See for yourself.

    - The Art of Discworld. This had some absolutely hilarious images -- the best one being Nobby dressed up in his disguise from Jingo. It also was full of author commentary. Interesting was that Sam Vimes was originally envisioned as quite a minor character -- Carrot was going to be the main character of Guards, Guards. I'm glad that changed. Anyway, consider this on my birthday wishlist.

Thursday, 06 November 2008

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Wednesday, 15 October 2008

Monday, 29 September 2008

  • I just watched the Twilight trailer. Looks like a bunch of lame special effects and awkward love scenes, apart from which it could actually be enjoyable. But since when was it a fighting movie?